Graham Rice's New Plants Blog

Editor-in-Chief of the RHS Encyclopedia of Perennials; writer for a wide range of newspapers and magazines including The Garden and The Plantsman; member of the RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee and Floral Trials Committee; author of many books on plants and gardens.

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Alstroemeria Rock ‘n’ Roll: New from Thompson & Morgan

The recent trial of Alstroemeria at the RHS garden at Wisley not only highlighted the best of the familiar flowering types, but there were also some fine variegated forms that caught the eye, two of which received awards. Too new to be in the trial was this startling new variety from Australia, Alstroemeria Rock ‘n’ Roll (‘AlsDuno1’). (It’s sometimes written as Rock & Roll.)

Making a bushy plant eventually reaching about 30-40in/80-10cm height and 20-28in/50-70cm, the centre of each leaf is brightly splashed, the colour starts off yellow in the young leaves and then matures through cream to white. And because the pale variegation is at the centre of the leaf, where it’s at its thickest, rather than at the thin and vulnerable edge of the leaf it doesn’t scorch.

Topping this bright foliage display are clusters of six to twelve, 2-3in/4-7.5cm flowers in a contrasting vivid orange-scarlet. They start to open in late spring and continue into the autumn, especially if the faded flower stems are pulled right out at the root.

Happy in large containers, or in any fertile soil that is not parched or waterlogged, Alstroemeria Rock ‘n’ Roll is happy in sun or a little shade. To ensure that plants in beds and borders overwinter happily in chilly conditions, cover with a deep mulch of bark chips in autumn after the stems are cut down.